T2: James Cameron Is the King of Sequels

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10 years ago

Whether he’s sinking the Titanic or plotting out an alien invasion, director James Cameron’s style could be called Hollywood spectacular; big budgets and special effects define his productions. As a writer though, Cameron makes sure the explosions punctuate the plot rather than overwhelm it. The complexity of the characters who populate his films transcend all the flame throwers, rocket launchers and killer cyborgs they’re up against, and maybe that’s why he so excels at the sequel: Cameron understands where his characters are going and what they would do next.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day takes a pretty basic plot, hero from the future, killer robot, pretty girl, the future of the human race in the balance, and moves it forward. The sequel asks, “What would it be like to be Sarah Connor? Who would you hang out with if your crazy mom kept telling you you’d grow up to save the world one day? Can a killer robot learn the value of human compassion?”

While The Terminator
was a better-than average science fiction/action movie, the sequel is
where Cameron really shines. He manages to take young, naive Sarah
Connor and turn her into a believable bad-ass and craft a tough little
lovable punk out of the teenage John Connor. Watching it you think, “Of course
this is what he’s be like.” Using the original as a launching point,
Cameron creates a much stronger fictional world for, and with, his
characters.

He can also craft a great sequel when working off someone else’s source material. Aliens , the sequel to Alien ,
is completely different from the Ridley Scott original. It’s a brash
action movie with one-liners and flame throwers, but somehow does
perfect justice to Scott’s elegantly terrifying film. Cameron allows
Sigourney Weaver’s character, Ripley, to grow in the same way that
Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor evolved in T2. Even the monsters find
new ways to be scary, because his heroes are smarter and tougher this
time around. And that’s what keeps it interesting for us.